The Claremont United Methodist Church in California set up a nativity scene where Jesus, Mary, and Joseph are in separate cages, as a way to protest the separation of migrant families in detention centers along the US-Mexico border.
The photograph, posted on social media by Rev. Karen Clark Ristine, shows the traditional Jesus, Mary, and Joseph figurines, symbolizing what is happening to migrant families coming from Latin America. Rev. Clark Ristine accompanied the photo with a lengthy caption, explaining the UMC’s intention and what the unusual nativity scene represents:
Stirred to tears by the Claremont UMC nativity. Inside the church, the Holy Family is reunited. The theological statement posted with the nativity: In a time in our country when refugee families seek asylum at our borders and are unwillingly separated from one another, we consider the most well-known refugee family in the world. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, the Holy Family. Shortly after the birth of Jesus, Joseph and Mary were forced to flee with their young son from Nazareth to Egypt to escape King Herod, a tyrant. They feared persecution and death. What if this family sought refuge in our country today? Imagine Joseph and Mary separated at the border and Jesus no older than two taken from his mother and placed behind the fences of a Border Patrol detention center as more than 5,500 children have been the past three years.
Officially, family separations at the border ended in the summer of 2018 after President Trump signed an executive order reversing the policy. However, according to The Intercept, migrant families are still getting separated to this day, and “more than 1,100 children have been taken from their parents, according to the government’s own data.”
This ongoing tragedy has had grave consequences for separated family members. Babies and children end up at detention centers where they live in squalid conditions without the appropriate care they need; their parents have no idea where they are and can sometimes go months before seeing their children again; the trauma of separation and living in the detention centers has even affected some children so much that they don’t recognize their parents when they reunite; and even more tragic, at least six children have died in custody after being detained, as reported by ProPublica.
With American politics going the way they are, the future looks bleak for migrants and asylum seekers trying to cross the border into the US, but at least there are still people like Rev. Clark Ristine and the Claremont UMC community who care enough to protest US immigration policy, and hopefully, their small act will help raise awareness and change the minds of people across the country.